Thursday, 24 January 2008

Well, I gave you some sneak peaks at the Love Story collection by Making Memories last week, and we are all loving this range so much that we thought we would offer a special giveaway! Let's face it we like to share the good stuff!

All you have to do is purchase $35 of goodies from Making Memories Love Story collection and you will score the Word Fetti that goes with the collection and a meter of MM ribbon to go with it!

Be the first to make this purchase and then come and leave a comment here with your order number and we will get the extra goodies in your package! (purchase must be made on-line)

RenataK was the lucky winner of the Two Scoops prize last week! You will have to show us what you create now!!

Time is running out for the Reverse Auction for the Cricut! If you haven't made a bid yet, what are you waiting for?? Such an easy way to win a Cricut!! Remember it is the lowest unique bid that will win the prize. The competition is getting pretty fierce now.

Last week the lovely Tammie gave some details in the e-mail newsletter for hand-stitching on your layouts, we thought this was such a great technique to use that we have decided to elaborate on what was in the newsletter here, so grab your cuppa and sit back to find out more.

Why Stitching?

Handstitching on layouts, cards and off the page projects provides an interesting and versatile embellishment and can be used to draw attention to the focal point of the layout. The possibilities for stitching are only limited by your imagination, it can be used to outline photos or patterned paper, provide lines, secure items to the page, create shapes, flourishes and even your title.

What to use:

There are many different stitching mediums available and they come in every shade imaginable allowing you to colour match to your project. You can use embroidery thread, floss, ribbon and raffia. Embroidery needles are the best to use as the eye is larger and easier to thread. Other helpful tools are ruler for drawing straight lines and a paper piercer to pre-pierce the holes in your design. There are several piercers on the market there is a basic one by Heidi Swapp and there is the Cuterbee Bugs by EK Success. The bugs come in a set of two and are rotary peircers one does a single line and the other a double line. They create uniform holes about 1/8" apart. The double piercer is great for doing cross-stitch and zig-zag designs. Using a mouse pad under your work when you use a piercer makes it easier to get defined holes.

How to successfully stitch onto your layouts:

What to Stitch - Keep your design simple and stick to the outline of your image. You can embellish finished designs with doodling, brads, gems , ink etc after. The image can be created by tracing a design or using a stitching template. Use a pencil to trace your image onto your page/project and then you can erase this guide once you have pierced your holes.

How to stitch - Use a simple back stitch (coming up through the second hole, and going down through the first hole, coming up through the third hole and back down through the second etc..) is the simplest stitch to use. To finish off ends on the back of your work simply stick down with tape.

The featured layout "Write" demostrates the effect of stitching. A circle was traced and stitched using green embroidery thread and back stitch. This creates a link between the journalling and draws attention to the photo.